Monday 12 September 2016

Chelt Young Catholic Adults News




It's the Rosary and Wine evening tomorrow at 8pm at the Old Priory (Tues 13th Sept), St. Gregory's Church, followed by a social.

There will be a Cheese and Wine evening on Sat 24th Sept (details to follow).


To be put on the text alert list to receive more details please text 07908105787.

Also on 28th -30th Oct there will be a retreat for Young Catholic Adults at Douai Abbey. To book see:- https://v1.bookwhen.com/yca-douai-2016. Book early to avoid disappointment!

Sunday 11 September 2016

Free Rosary Packs Available!





Do you want to start your own Young Catholic Adult Rosary group? Free Rosary packs are available (containing 5 Rosaries, 5 booklets explaining how to say the Rosary and 5 Scapulars). 
 
Simply send a stamped addressed envelope (First or Second class), with a contact email address and the proposed time and location of your group to:-

28 Wheatland Drive, Cheltenham, Glos, GL51 0QA.

Packs sent worldwide and the the UK!

Friday 2 September 2016

Five Reasons You Need to Go On A Catholic Retreat



 Religious Retreat- Canadian Catholics at Campion House, Osterley, Middlesex, England. Taken Sometime in-between 1940-45. Source: wiki commons.

"1. Get Away From Busy-ness and Stress
We have too many meetings and sports commitments and emails and voice mails and bills and chores. It is draining. Get away from everyday life completely and spend a day or two days or a week or a month on retreat filling up what has been drained away.

2. Be Quiet and Listen to God
It is a noisy world. God is always talking to us, but it can be difficult to hear what He is saying. The opportunities for quiet reflection in our day-to-day life are usually filled with music or podcasts or texting others or surfing the internet. Technology makes life easier and helps us to communicate more effectively with people we don’t see as much as we would like to, but it steals some of that communication time from God.
Go on retreat. Leave the phone, iPod, and computer at home. Spend some time talking to God and really listening to Him. A Catholic retreat is usually going to have time set aside to celebrate the Mass each day, and most often there will also be the opportunity for Eucharistic Adoration. What better way to listen to God than by spending an hour sitting with Him in prayer?

Don’t wait to communicate with God only at Mass and Adoration, though. By leaving the technology at home and really focusing your time on silence and prayer during a Catholic retreat you are able to more effectively hear God’s voice throughout your entire day.

3. Be around other Catholics
Every time I go on a guided retreat I rediscover what a joy it is to be around a group of Catholics trying to deepen their prayer life and live out their faith. Much of the time in everyday life we are not afforded the setting or the company to comfortably talk about our prayer life and our faith with others who share similar views and aspirations. On a retreat you will find others from all different walks of life, and sometimes from many different corners of the world, who are trying to escape the monotony of the day-to-day and improve their prayer life. Being in a group like this is truly a pleasure and will fill you with a joy that you can carry with you after retreat to fuel the motivation to keep your prayer life strong.

4. Or, Be Alone
Going on a directed retreat with others is a great experience, but once in a while we also need to just get away from everybody. Taking a private retreat at a hermitage or monastery is one of the great ways to refresh the soul. A private retreat affords you time for silence, prayer, holy reading, and reflection. Many places will also make the Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, and confession available to those on private retreat.

5. Jesus did it
Jesus spent forty days in the desert fasting and praying. You may only have the time to get away for one or two days, but the example has been set and we need to follow it.Find a good Catholic retreat centre, commit to a time, and go. It will do things for your relationship with God that you could have never imagined."

Taken from:- http://www.catholicretreats.net/5-reasons-you-need-to-go-on-a-catholic-retreat .

Wednesday 31 August 2016

Douai Abbey - Guest Facilities

"St Benedict did not envisage his monasteries as existing primarily for the purpose of receiving passing guests. In fact, he saw them as sanctuaries for those who wished permanently to put aside the distractions of the world and seek Christ alone. Yet St Benedict recognised the attraction monasteries held for those still in the world, and resigned himself with goodwill to making provision for guests, since “monasteries are never without them”. (Rule of St Benedict, 53:16)


History has proved him right. By their very nature monasteries played a vital role in providing safe and comfortable shelter in times when travel was time-consuming, arduous and often dangerous. The weary pilgrim, far from home, would instinctively look for shelter in the house of God. Today, life itself has become a wearying pilgrimage for many. For them a monastery offers respite from the fast-paced, stressful and often unbalanced lives they lead. Others seek to join the monks in the space they make for God to be worshipped and experienced, a space much harder now to find in the world.

Guests normally eat in the Guest Refectory, although some guests may be asked to join the monastic community for meals. There is also a separate guest courtyard where meals may be taken in the warmer months, weather permitting. Outside meal times, the courtyard is a pleasant area to read or meditate.

While a number of groups wish to take their meals in silence, others benefit from being able to talk. Where the two different types of group coincide, they are usually seated at separate tables and are asked to be mindful of each other’s needs. The community tries to ensure complete silence in the monastery, but there may be times when some noise is unavoidable.

The kitchen is modern and well-equipped. Our small, dedicated staff produces food of high quality and can cater for a number of special dietary needs as listed on the booking form. We cannot guarantee that the ingredients supplied to us were prepared in a nut-free environment. Guests with very particular dietary needs are advised to bring their own food. If in doubt, the Guestmaster can advise you.

With the exception only of the monks’ garden, our spacious grounds are available for our guests to enjoy (including the kitchen garden and sheep meadow), and there are several easy walks through fields and woods that can be made from the monastery. Naturally, all our guests are welcome to join the monks in the abbey church for their regular services of divine worship.










Source: Douai Abbey website:- http://www.douaiabbey.org.uk/

Monday 22 August 2016

The Wisdom of Pope St. Pius X - LAMENTABILI SANE





Pope St. Pius X was a prophet of his time, he foresaw the trials and tribulations of the Church in the  decades after his death. His teachings are, as pertinent today, as they were during his lifetime.

One great example is his condemnation of the errors of the modernists. It was issued on 3rd July 1917:-

SYLLABUS CONDEMNING THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS

LAMENTABILI SANE
Pius X July 3, 1907
With truly lamentable results, our age, casting aside all restraint in its search for the ultimate causes of things, frequently pursues novelties so ardently that it rejects the legacy of the human race. Thus it falls into very serious errors, which are even more serious when they concern sacred authority, the interpretation of Sacred Scripture, and the principal mysteries of Faith. The fact that many Catholic writers also go beyond the limits determined by the Fathers and the Church herself is extremely regrettable. In the name of higher knowledge and historical research (they say), they are looking for that progress of dogmas which is, in reality, nothing but the corruption of dogmas.

These errors are being daily spread among the faithful. Lest they captivate the faithful's minds and corrupt the purity of their faith, His Holiness, Pius X, by Divine Providence, Pope, has decided that the chief errors should be noted and condemned by the Office of this Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition.

Therefore, after a very diligent investigation and consultation with the Reverend Consultors, the Most Eminent and Reverend Lord Cardinals, the General Inquisitors in matters of faith and morals have judged the following propositions to be condemned and proscribed. In fact, by this general decree, they are condemned and proscribed. 

1. The ecclesiastical law which prescribes that books concerning the Divine Scriptures are subject to previous examination does not apply to critical scholars and students of scientific exegesis of the Old and New Testament.
2. The Church's interpretation of the Sacred Books is by no means to be rejected; nevertheless, it is subject to the more accurate judgment and correction of the exegetes.
3. From the ecclesiastical judgments and censures passed against free and more scientific exegesis, one can conclude that the Faith the Church proposes contradicts history and that Catholic teaching cannot really be reconciled with the true origins of the Christian religion.
4. Even by dogmatic definitions the Church's magisterium cannot determine the genuine sense of the Sacred Scriptures.
5. Since the deposit of Faith contains only revealed truths, the Church has no right to pass judgment on the assertions of the human sciences.
6. The "Church learning" and the "Church teaching" collaborate in such a way in defining truths that it only remains for the "Church teaching" to sanction the opinions of the "Church learning."
7. In proscribing errors, the Church cannot demand any internal assent from the faithful by which the judgments she issues are to be embraced.
8. They are free from all blame who treat lightly the condemnations passed by the Sacred Congregation of the Index or by the Roman Congregations.
9. They display excessive simplicity or ignorance who believe that God is really the author of the Sacred Scriptures.
10. The inspiration of the books of the Old Testament consists in this: The Israelite writers handed down religious doctrines under a peculiar aspect which was either little or not at all known to the Gentiles.
11. Divine inspiration does not extend to all of Sacred Scriptures so that it renders its parts, each and every one, free from every error.
12. If he wishes to apply himself usefully to Biblical studies, the exegete must first put aside all preconceived opinions about the supernatural origin of Sacred Scripture and interpret it the same as any other merely human document.
13. The Evangelists themselves, as well as the Christians of the second and third generation, artificially arranged the evangelical parables. In such a way they explained the scanty fruit of the preaching of Christ....
14. In many narrations the Evangelists recorded, not so much things that are true, as things which, even though false, they judged to be more profitable for their readers.
15. Until the time the canon was defined and constituted, the Gospels were increased by additions and corrections. Therefore there remained in them only a faint and uncertain trace of the doctrine of Christ.
16. The narrations of John are not properly history, but a mystical contemplation of the Gospel. The discourses contained in his Gospel are theological meditations, lacking historical truth concerning the mystery of salvation.
17. The fourth Gospel exaggerated miracles not only in order that the extraordinary might stand out but also in order that it might become more suitable for showing forth the work and glory of the Word lncarnate.
18. John claims for himself the quality of witness concerning Christ. In reality, however, he is only a distinguished witness of the Christian life, or of the life of Christ in the Church at the close of the first century.
19. Heterodox exegetes have expressed the true sense of the Scriptures more faithfully than Catholic exegetes.
20. Revelation could be nothing else than the consciousness man acquired of his revelation to God.
21. Revelation, constituting the object of the Catholic faith, was not completed with the Apostles.
22. The dogmas the Church holds out as revealed are not truths which have fallen from heaven. They are an interpretation of religious facts which the human mind has acquired by laborious effort.
23. Opposition may, and actually does, exist between the facts narrated in Sacred Scripture and the Church's dogmas which rest on them. Thus the critic may reject as false facts the Church holds as most certain.
24. The exegete who constructs premises from which it follows that dogmas are historically false or doubtful is not to be reproved as long as he does not directly deny the dogmas themselves .
25. The assent of faith ultimately rests on a mass of probabilities .
26. The dogmas of the Faith are to be held only according to their practical sense; that is to say, as preceptive norms of conduct and not as norms of believing.
27. The divinity of Jesus Christ is not proved from the Gospels. It is a dogma which the Christian conscience has derived from the notion of the Messias.
28. While He was exercising His ministry, Jesus did not speak with the object of teaching He was the Messias, nor did His miracles tend to prove it.
29. It is permissible to grant that the Christ of history is far inferior to the Christ Who is the object of faith.
30 In all the evangelical texts the name "Son of God'' is equivalent only to that of "Messias." It does not in the least way signify that Christ is the true and natural Son of God.
31. The doctrine concerning Christ taught by Paul, John, and the Councils of Nicea, Ephesus and Chalcedon is not that which Jesus taught but that which the Christian conscience conceived concerning Jesus.
32. It is impossible to reconcile the natural sense of the Gospel texts with the sense taught by our theologians concerning the conscience and the infallible knowledge of Jesus Christ.
33 Everyone who is not led by preconceived opinions can readily see that either Jesus professed an error concerning the immediate Messianic coming or the greater part of His doctrine as contained in the Gospels is destitute of authenticity.
34. The critics can ascribe to Christ a knowledge without limits only on a hypothesis which cannot be historically conceived and which is repugnant to the moral sense. That hypothesis is that Christ as man possessed the knowledge of God and yet was unwilling to communicate the knowledge of a great many things to His disciples and posterity.
35. Christ did not always possess the consciousness of His Messianic dignity.
36. The Resurrection of the Savior is not properly a fact of the historical order. It is a fact of merely the supernatural order (neither demonstrated nor demonstrable) which the Christian conscience gradually derived from other facts.
37. In the beginning, faith in the Resurrection of Christ was not so much in the fact itself of the Resurrection as in the immortal life of Christ with God.
38. The doctrine of the expiatory death of Christ is Pauline and not evangelical.
39. The opinions concerning the origin of the Sacraments which the Fathers of Trent held and which certainly influenced their dogmatic canons are very different from those which now rightly exist among historians who examine Christianity .
40. The Sacraments have their origin in the fact that the Apostles and their successors, swayed and moved by circumstances and events, interpreted some idea and intention of Christ.
41. The Sacraments are intended merely to recall to man's mind the ever-beneficent presence of the Creator.
42. The Christian community imposed the necessity of Baptism, adopted it as a necessary rite, and added to it the obligation of the Christian profession.
43. The practice of administering Baptism to infants was a disciplinary evolution, which became one of the causes why the Sacrament was divided into two, namely, Baptism and Penance.
44. There is nothing to prove that the rite of the Sacrament of Confirmation was employed by the Apostles. The formal distinction of the two Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation does not pertain to the history of primitive Christianity.
45. Not everything which Paul narrates concerning the institution of the Eucharist (I Cor. 11:23-25) is to be taken historically.
46. In the primitive Church the concept of the Christian sinner reconciled by the authority of the Church did not exist. Only very slowly did the Church accustom herself to this concept. As a matter of fact, even after Penance was recognized as an institution of the Church, it was not called a Sacrament since it would be held as a disgraceful Sacrament.
47. The words of the Lord, "Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained'' (John 20:22-23), in no way refer to the Sacrament of Penance, in spite of what it pleased the Fathers of Trent to say.
48. In his Epistle (Ch. 5:14-15) James did not intend to promulgate a Sacrament of Christ but only commend a pious custom. If in this custom he happens to distinguish a means of grace, it is not in that rigorous manner in which it was taken by the theologians who laid down the notion and number of the Sacraments.
49. When the Christian supper gradually assumed the nature of a liturgical action those who customarily presided over the supper acquired the sacerdotal character.
50. The elders who fulfilled the office of watching over the gatherings of the faithful were instituted by the Apostles as priests or bishops to provide for the necessary ordering of the increasing communities and not properly for the perpetuation of the Apostolic mission and power.
51. It is impossible that Matrimony could have become a Sacrament of the new law until later in the Church since it was necessary that a full theological explication of the doctrine of grace and the Sacraments should first take place before Matrimony should be held as a Sacrament.
52. It was far from the mind of Christ to found a Church as a society which would continue on earth for a long course of centuries. On the contrary, in the mind of Christ the kingdom of heaven together with the end of the world was about to come immediately.
53. The organic constitution of the Church is not immutable. Like human society, Christian society is subject to a perpetual evolution.
54. Dogmas, Sacraments and hierarchy, both their notion and reality, are only interpretations and evolutions of the Christian intelligence which have increased and perfected by an external series of additions the little germ latent in the Gospel.
55. Simon Peter never even suspected that Christ entrusted the primacy in the Church to him.
56. The Roman Church became the head of all the churches, not through the ordinance of Divine Providence, but merely through political conditions.
57. The Church has shown that she is hostile to the progress of the natural and theological sciences.
58. Truth is no more immutable than man himself, since it evolved with him, in him, and through him.
59. Christ did not teach a determined body of doctrine applicable to all times and all men, but rather inaugurated a religious movement adapted or to be adapted to different times and places.
60. Christian Doctrine was originally Judaic. Through successive evolutions it became first Pauline, then Joannine, finally Hellenic and universal.
61. It may be said without paradox that there is no chapter of Scripture, from the first of Genesis to the last of the Apocalypse, which contains a doctrine absolutely identical with that which the Church teaches on the same matter. For the same reason, therefore, no chapter of Scripture has the same sense for the critic and the theologian.
62. The chief articles of the Apostles' Creed did not have the same sense for the Christians of the first ages as they have for the Christians of our time.
63. The Church shows that she is incapable of effectively maintaining evangelical ethics since she obstinately clings to immutable doctrines which cannot be reconciled with modern progress.
64. Scientific progress demands that the concepts of Christian doctrine concerning God, creation, revelation, the Person of the Incarnate Word, and Redemption be re-adjusted.
65. Modern Catholicism can be reconciled with true science only if it is transformed into a non-dogmatic Christianity; that is to say, into a broad and liberal Protestantism.

The following Thursday, the fourth day of the same month and year, all these matters were accurately reported to our Most Holy Lord, Pope Pius X. His Holiness approved and confirmed the decree of the Most Eminent Fathers and ordered that each and every one of the above-listed propositions be held by all as condemned and proscribed.

PETER PALOMBELLI, Notary of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition

Thursday 11 August 2016

Young Catholic Adult Weekend @ Douai Abbey 28st -30th Oct 2016 - Price List and How to Book





Please see the full price list for the forthcoming Young Catholic Adult Weekend @ Douai Abbey 28st -30th Oct 2016:-

Guest House - Fri night to Sunday lunchtime (full board Single) £130
Guest House - Fri night to Sunday lunchtime (full board Shared) £100 per person
Guest House - Sat night to Sunday lunchtime (full board Single) £65
Guest House - Sat night to Sunday lunchtime (full board Shared) £50 per person

Cottages - Fri Night to Sunday lunchtime (full board) £82 per person
Cottages - Sat night to Sunday lunchtime (full board) £41 per person
Cottages - Fri night to Sunday lunchtime (self catering) £37 per person
Cottages - Sat night to Sunday lunchtime (self-catering) £18.50 per person

 Or come for the day (bring a packed lunch) for £12.

How to book

Go to the booking website:- https://v1.bookwhen.com/yca-douai-2016.

Monday 1 August 2016

Young Catholic Adults Douai Abbey Weekend 2016 - The Cottages Accomodation, What to Expect!


                    The Cottages


For Student and Youth Group & Family Retreats


  • The Cottages accommodate groups of up to 15 young persons in simple 'hostel' type rooms.
  • Self-catering facilities include a kitchen, dining room and scullery.
  • Two other rooms provide a lounge and chapel, and the whole building is centrally heated.
  • The facilities available include the Abbey Church which provides a peaceful, prayerful space for worship. Guests are free to join in all the community services and to enjoy the spacious Abbey grounds.
  • Special rate for families.
  • Lying deep in the Berkshire countryside overlooking the beautiful Kennet valley to the distant Hampshire downs, the Cottages provide an ideal place for a group retreat for all who seek the refreshment of peace and quiet.

Sunday 31 July 2016

Do you want to Learn to Sing Gregorian Chant?

 Photo: Credit http://www.scholagregoriana.org/  
                                      
The Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge will be assisting with the 2016 Young Catholic Adults event at Douai Abbey in Berkshire, by  providing Gregorian Chant Workshops throughout the weekend. 
The Schola was "founded in 1975 by Dr Mary Berry, a Cambridge musician and musicologist, in order to ensure that the chant should continue to be taught, and that all those who wished to sing and study this profoundly spiritual and ancient music should be able to do so."
To book onto the YCA weekend please goto:- https://v1.bookwhen.com/yca-douai-2016.

Sunday 24 July 2016

Booking for Young Catholic Adults Weekend 2016 (28-30 October) 2016- Now Open!


During the weekend of the 28-30 October 2016, Young Catholic Adults will be running a retreat at Douai Abbey, it will be led by Fr. Thomas Crean O.P. The weekend will be full-board.

There will also be a Marian Procession, Rosaries, Sung Masses, Confession and socials. All Masses will be celebrated in the Extraordinary form.

Please note to guarantee your place this year Douai Abbey have requested that everyone books in 3 weeks before the start of the weekend i.e. 7th Oct 2016.



Prices start from £18.50 per person. Self-catering and Full Board  accommodation available. For more details please see http://youngcatholicadults.co.uk/events.htm. Please note to guarantee your place this year Douai Abbey have requested that everyone books in 3 weeks before the start of the weekend i.e. 7th Oct 2016.

Saturday 9 July 2016

Catholic Dating UK & Ireland



I've received this message from Neil McGee, founder of a new venture called www.CatholicOnlineDating.co.uk, he writes:-

Catholic Dating UK & Ireland (www.CatholicOnlineDating.co.uk) is a free online community for Catholic singles in the UK and Ireland.

"In 2013 I was a typical single Catholic living in London. Like many I originally moved to the city for work with no local Catholic connections, and it took over a year to get involved with a wonderful young adults group in my local parish in Ealing. Balancing difficult work commitments that involved lots of late nights and travel, it was hard to meet as many new people as I would have liked, so I started looking at Catholic online dating.

Probably the biggest problem with the existing Catholic dating sites I found was that they had very few members near where I was in the UK, and those they did have they publicly displayed their photos and basic info as marketing material to attract more members. Reading through online reviews I doubted if some of these sites had true Catholic intentions or were run primarily as profit-making enterprises.

Having left my full time IT job, I worked full time on creating a UK/Irish Catholic dating website. Doing all the development and programming myself kept costs low. It also let me build in extras that I haven’t seen elsewhere, like Daily Readings or writing prayers into the website code itself (I wrote about this on https://churchpop.com/2016/04/13/secret-catholic-prayers-hidden-website-code/).

In February 2015 we launched the website and started marketing it mainly through Facebook, Twitter and word of mouth via friends and family. A year later, we had about 500 active users, and as I write (July 2016) we have about 900 active members.

Now that the hardest technical challenges of the website have been overcome, our clear goal is to keep building the community for Catholics in the UK and Ireland and increasing the number of regular active users. I love to think that we can help open the door to future Catholic marriages and families. On the other hand, through opportunities that have opened for me to work on short term projects as a freelance IT consultant, I’ve also been blessed with a way to keep covering costs and developing the website for the long term.

As we don’t have a budget for advertising, we rely on people who share our website (https://www.CatholicOnlineDating.co.uk) with their friends, local parish or on Facebook. There’s a question on registration that asks how people first heard about us, and every time we’re mentioned in a parish bulletin or an article we get a good number of signups from that area! If you have any doubts or would like to know more, you can contact me directly via neil@catholiconlinedating.co.uk and I can give you a call or email back. If you have any ideas on how we can reach out to more people that would also be most welcome."
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